Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumLabor for Bernie Kickstarts Effort to Get Unions Behind Sanders With Nearly 2,000 Union Backers
Friday, Jun 26, 2015
Labor for Bernie, a new nationwide network for union members, announced today the launch of their grassroots movement to push the AFL-CIO and other unaffiliated major labor organizations such as SEIU and the Teamsters toward endorsing Senator Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign.
Almost 2,000 union members have signed onto a letter outlining the networks goals. Labor for Bernie reports that more than a third of these Sanders supporters belong to building trades unions, with 137 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers signees alone. Other unions that showed significant representation in the letter include the Communications Workers of America, American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, International Union of Operating Engineers, United Auto Workers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
"Labor for Bernie 2016 wont be a corporate-style, staff-driven, top-down campaign. It will reflect our commitment to creating fundamental change and the urgency of stronger grassroots organizing and political activity, the letter reads. We call on labor leaders, union members and working people to unite behind Bernie Sanders for a voice in the presidential political process and to elect the President working families needa President who will answer to the 99 percent!
The networks website includes sample resolutions for rank and file activists hoping to push their locals and state-level federations of labor into endorsing Sanders. Thus far, AFL-CIO state-level federations from Vermont and South Carolina have chosen to do so.
"Bernie is running on a record of real accomplishment for workers, farmers, veterans, and millions of other blue-collar Americans," said Erin McKee, President of the South Carolina AFL-CIO, on the networks website.
"But here's the real difference between him and all the rest: He's the candidate who truly believes in the power of grassroots organizing. Bernie has been to South Carolina over the past few years and some of our members got the chance to see that first hand when he met not only with labor unions but with the fast food workers fighting for $15 an hour and a union."
In late March, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka delivered a speech mentioning that an endorsement from the national organization is still up for grabs.
It is early, and although many candidates are already in the race, the field remains open, he said then. And the labor movements doors are open to any candidate who is serious about transforming our economy with high and rising wages.
Front-runner Hillary Clintons recent silence on the labor-opposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement led Trumka to say a few weeks later, in late May, that it was conceivable that the nationwide AFL-CIO would not endorse a candidate for president, instead focusing on the legislative races in 2016 if a candidate didnt commit to a platform that they would want to fight for.
Since 1989, 19 of Sanders top 20 donors are members of unions from across the county, whereas Clintons top 20 is heavily populated by titans of finance. Labor for Bernie will be a new institutional campaign presence amid this fiscal backdrop.
More here: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18119/bernie_sanders_unions1